1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical reader system and method that directs a non-coherent light towards a biosensor, collects the non-coherent light which is reflected (or transmitted) from (or through) the biosensor, and then angularly filters the collected non-coherent light to obtain a narrow spectral response which can be analyzed to determine if a biological substance is located on the biosensor or if a biomolecular event took place on the biosensor.
2. Description of Related Art
Many areas of biological research today utilize optical non-contact sensor technology to help perform sensitive and time-constrained assays. In such assays, an optical reader system is often used to monitor variations in an optical response of an optical sensor (biosensor) as a biological substance is brought into a sensing region of the biosensor. The presence of the biological substance alters the optical response of the biosensor when it causes a bio-chemical interaction like material binding, adsorption etc . . . This alteration of the optical response enables one to directly monitor biological events in label-free assays where the expense and experimental perturbations of fluorescent dyes are completely avoided.
To directly monitor biological events on the biosensor, the optical reader system needs to use a launch system to launch a light towards the biosensor. And, the optical reader system also needs to use a receive system to receive the light output from the biosensor. The selection of components used in the launch and receive systems like the light source (punctual light source or spatially non-coherent light source) and optical fibers (single mode optical fibers or multimode optical fibers) has a big impact on the performance of the optical reader system. It is a purpose of the present invention to discuss some of the different components that can be used in a launch system and a receive system of a multimode based optical reader system.